Asunder Chapter 16

Chapter 4.1 (16)

The Man in Reverse

The Professor

“He is the smartest deceiver I ever met. I’m pretty sure Colin Ricci could lie and cheat himself out of a Siberian high-security prison. The number of lives the man has ruined because of his choices is astronomical. If only he understood the repercussions of his actions. Well… actually, I’m pretty sure he understands. He seeks to actively destroy them. One day, he will pay for his sins. I will be sure of it.” - Niko Bennett

- 244 years before the present day -

- The year 2044 -

- Age 34 -

The sounds of frantic styluses tapping echoed through the auditorium. Balthazar glanced at his wristwatch. Time was almost up. He looked up to the circular skylight in the center of the tall ceiling and could make out an airplane with its associated contrails of curdled air, leaving a stream in the bright blue sky. It made him think of his mother and father and of the time they first came to America.

His father had passed away nearly ten years ago to the date. Cancer was a fickle killer, and even with Azar’s close connections with the best oncologists in New York, the disease still took his father quickly. His mother, though resilient at first, began to deteriorate herself, and he wished she wasn’t so stubborn. He wanted her to leave their old home and move in with him and his wife. He wanted to care for her better, but there was no hope between his job as a professor at Columbia and his mother’s stubbornness.

The woman wasn’t sick or even old. She was just… very forgetful. Even though she was only 64 years old, they were beginning to see early signs of dementia, so he pressed her to live with them when he visited her each day on his way home from work.

He looked back at his watch. Time was far past due, yet the styluses were still rapidly tapping. His thoughts had taken his mind from the task at hand. He cleared his throat and spoke loudly, “Time is up!” He reached down and tapped the icon on his compad, ending the digital quiz, therefore freezing all of his students’ compads from allowing any more editing.

An echo of disappointed sighs reverberated through the large room. Immediately, a display of averages, ranges, and median values of the student’s quiz scores appeared. Curiously, and something he had never seen before, the numbers continued to fluctuate slightly rather than being static and displaying a single value for each statistic. Azar tapped the screen as though it were a glitch and hoped the physical act of beating the digital screen would suddenly make it stop. Confused, he looked back up at the students. The plethora of students were now conversing with one another, albeit one student whose face was aglow with the familiar light of the compad screen. Her stylus worked frantically.

Azar tapped his screen to display the student’s scores rather than the cumulative averages. He flipped through the 564 student list, and there it was. One student's score was slowly increasing, although she was sitting at 83.7%, which was not normal for her usually near 100% scores. He tapped the name Niko Bennett—a peculiar name for a woman of color from the Upper East Side.

Her biography popped up on his screen. Daughter of a West African Businessman and a Japanese Florist. She received Summa Cum Laude at her private school in upstate New York. Her cumulative GPA thus far sat at a perfect 4.0 for all seven semesters. Azar quietly congratulated the girl in his mind. This was not an easy achievement there at Columbia.

He scrolled to the bottom of his screen and frowned. Niko’s declared Major read: Genetics. What was a girl nearing the end of her senior year in college and majoring in genetics while minoring in Quantitative Quantum-computing doing in this class? He thought. Not only was she in an introductory course to Oneirology in her senior year, but she was also currently cheating.

He tapped the screen and accessed the coding sequence for the application. Clearly, Niko had hacked the system to allow herself more time on the quiz. He immediately deleted the new code and automatically shut down her compad. After, Azar glanced up to see a defeated young woman guiltily looking back at him. He raised his eyebrows, and she cowered in her seat. He mouthed to her, “See me after class.” She rolled her eyes and looked away, clearly annoyed he caught her in the act.

“Alright, everyone quiet down.” He spoke loudly into the microphone at his collar.

The audience hushed to a dull rumble of whispers.

“Well done on your quiz, everyone, a pretty decent average of 73.4% this time around.” He eyed Niko, who pretended not to listen to him.

“Now, I want you all to read Chapter 36 before the next class. There will be a quiz. I will try to make it a little easier than this one.”

A sigh of relief washed over the crowd of students.

“But…” He retorted, “There will be a few questions on Table 45.3, so you may want to flip ahead to Chapter 45 and memorize the table on ways of determining sleep states. There will also be a bonus extra credit question on the History of Dream Interpretations. I’ll give you a hint: snakes.”

He looked around the room, and most people had already begun packing their bags, ready to be done with his rant. “At any rate, have a great evening, class dismissed.”

The noise erupted in the room as students picked up on conversations cut short and made their way to the exit, shuffling their feet up the steps. After a few minutes, the auditorium had nearly fully cleared, except for one student. Azar remained at his desk at the bottom of the room. Once everyone was gone, he cleared his throat.

“What is a young aspiring geneticist doing in my introductory course her senior year?” he remarked without lifting his eyes from his notebook.

Niko had gathered her things and slowly made her way to the desk.

“The stupid board of directors for this school decided they needed to add a new requirement to every science major…”

Azar raised his eyebrows, confused. “I wasn’t made aware of this…”

“You don’t pay attention too much outside of all of this, do you?” She moved her arms around the room, presenting the mess of gadgets lining the tables.

Taken aback by the girl's brazen words, he suddenly softened and chuckled to himself. “No, I suppose I do not… that being said, why did you choose this course?”

“I didn’t.” She put her hands on her hips.

He looked at her quizzically.

“Man, you really don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“This class is the class they added to the requirement. The class, Colin Ricci added.”

Suddenly, it all made sense. Azar’s course registration and attendance rose to an unprecedented all-time high. He had innocently assumed there was just a greater interest in Oneirology nowadays.

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot he was one of the board members. Peculiar, he chose this course specifically.”

“Is it really? The man owns half the stock in Dream Recording. I’m sure it’s his way of ensuring the smartest people in Columbia will get inspired and come work for him… or at least buy his products.”

He nodded in agreement. “I bet you are not too far off.”

He now looked at the girl, measuring her up. “So tell me. How there is someone as smart and witty as you, who is about to graduate with the highest honors from one of the leading genetics programs in the country, found cheating in an introductory course.”

“I… I was late.”

“You were late? That’s your excuse for academic misconduct? May I remind you that we have a zero-tolerance policy here at Columbia, and misconduct such as this can lead to immediate expulsion from the university?”

She looked at the ground.

“Is this how you have managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA your entire career here? By cheating?”

“Absolutely not!” She nearly exploded into streams of tears. “I’ve never cheated in my life! I… I… was late, and I knew if I missed this quiz, it would affect my final grade and ruin my GPA. Everything I’ve worked for, ruined, all because of a stupid introductory course some higher-ups added last minute to my graduation requirements.”

He looked at the girl and suddenly felt for her. Tears streamed down her face, and a look of utter defeat crossed her countenance.

“Listen, Ms. Bennett. I understand. We all make stupid decisions sometimes, and I believe in forgiveness and not letting something like this tarnish your achievements. I believe you. BUT…” he continued, “I want you to understand the severity of the action, and even though I will not report this to the board, I will give you a 0% for the assignment.”

A sense of relief settled over the girl, followed by an understanding of what it meant for her GPA. Tears welled in her eyes again. “I understand.” Her voice choked up.

He observed her eyes for the first time since interacting with her. They were a deep blue set behind her turtle shell-rimmed glasses. The Blue eyes contrasted with her ebony skin and curly black hair hanging down her shoulders was…peculiar, he thought.

“Ms. Bennett?” He questioned.

“Yes, professor?” Her voice cracked.

“I am also a believer in redemption…” he raised his eyebrows.

She looked up, confused.

“To make up for the quiz and to redeem your academic standing in my books, you may perform extra credit.”

Hesitantly, she responded, “Okay… how?”

He smiled, “I have a lot of research I perform using quantum computing, but… I have reached a standstill on one of my projects because I have yet to find the proper algorithm to integrate my collected data into a feasible, workable system.”

“And…” she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“And since you seem so apt at quantum computing, I think you are just the person to help me solve this problem.”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh Professor Gutien! Thank you so much! I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I absolutely will spend every waking second… well, the seconds I’m not in class or studying, here helping with this.”

He nodded. “Good. I hope you have learned your lesson, and if I ever hear of any more cheating, I will personally report it to the board of directors…”

She nodded in agreement.

“And while I’m there, I would give Colin Ricci a kick to the… well, a swift kick, you know where… for upending every science major in this university just for the sheer opportunity to improve his business.”

This remark caused Niko to laugh. “You got it, sir.”

“Good,” he winked at her.

“Now, go read those chapters, and don’t be late for our next quiz.”

“Absolutely! Thanks again, Professor!”

“You’re welcome, but please call me Azar,” he looked back at his notebook.

“You got it… Azar.” She turned and ran up the stairs out of the auditorium.